Ram

by

Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney

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This is a real hard album for me to even write about. But I got my hands on a remastered copy this week... and... BAM. There it was again: those melodies... those creeping, effortlessly-written, sensual melodies, jamming every song until they are overflowing with sound... I mean, does it really get any better with Paul?

A quick glance of the reviews here makes me sick. "Not as good as John's 'Imagine'.." "they spent too much time on the farm"... "too whimsical"... bah! What a legacy he had to uphold! And even from supposed Professional Beatleologists! But here he does it with grace and style and a fantastic sense of what needs to go on in a perfect pop song. Truly, there aren't any better pop songs on one single Beatle-related album than "Ram".

The influence of this record is still being felt. You could uphold the entire post-90's indie-pop scene (from Elephant 6 and their cadre all the way up to the new crop of SubPop poppy singers a la Fruit Bats and Long Winters) and trace it to "Ram". That a whole new, younger generation of fans has discovered the fountain of melody within pleases the heck out of me.

"Long Haired Lady", "Back Seat of My Car", and "Uncle Albert" are pure Paul pop masterpieces each. The hidden ditties, "Ram On", "Smile Away", "Eat At Home", are all essential in the context of the whole thing. "Dear Boy" and "Heart of the Country" are so fantastic in their simplicity and confidence you could almost see him writing them in literally minutes. The whole thing is just excellent... tasty pop good-naturedness that it's almost unbelievable that he would put that photo on the back cover. He didn't need to. This album alone would have provoked a good enough response from John so as to make any photo irrelevant. (And for the record, I find "Imagine" to be a pretty decent album, but not a melodic one at that, sort of disturbing and hard to follow, and highly impersonal at that.)

This is definitely the best Sunday Morning album ever recorded and one of my top 5 Beatles-related records of all time. It never loses its sweetness. Highly recommended.

After the mixed reception that greeted the charmingly homemade "McCartney" (1970), Sir Paul returned to the studio for this uneven album. Though "Ram" earned a bad rap from critics, it surpasses the appalling mediocrity of "Wild Life" and "Red Rose Speedway." There is one classic track (the elaborate "Back Seat of My Car") and tuneful ditties such as "Ram On," "Dear Boy" and "Heart of the Country." McCartney's first solo hit, "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," remains a catchy annoyance while "Long Haired Lady" is simply annoying. At least he still rocks on "Smile Away," "Monkberry Moon Delight" and "Too Many People" - a John & Yoko critique that sparked Lennon's vicious "How Do You Sleep?" The strengths and weaknesses of McCartney are on full display in this 1971 release.